Join us on Twitter and IRC (#ludumdare on Afternet.org) for the Theme Announcement!

Thanks everyone for coming out! For the next 3 weeks, we’ll be Playing and Rating the games you created.You NEED ratings to get a score at the end. Play and Rate games to help others find your game.We’ll be announcing Ludum Dare 36’s August date alongside the results.

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Posts Tagged ‘Discussion’

I’m going to continue down my bottomless list of Ludum Dare games as I continue to rate and give feedback to you guys! Some of you have been very patient, watching and waiting as I try to give everyone equal consideration and attention. Props to you all! I’m glad this has become something you intrinsically value.

A lot of you have also been taking part in some amazing discussions about gameplay structure and development, and I am so incredibly happy that anyone who’s latched on to the stream has managed to walk away with new knowledge, passion and inspiration. The chat discussion has become just as valuable as the ratings and comments! I plan on trying to do this for as many voting days as I can, even if only for a handful of hours. If I haven’t rated and reviewed your game yet, don’t hesitate to jump into the stream, post me a link to your game in chat, and stick around to participate in the discussion!

I’m here to bring to the table a small discussion on analytics. What I want to ask is: what do you guys think about embedding analytics in Ludum Dare entries? Something like http://www.gameanalytics.com/, for example.

I’m currently working on a full version of my last LD entry and thinking back I believe I could’ve benefited from input obtained from analytics. On what terms would you guys be comfortable with recording data from your gaming session?

Personally I wouldn’t mind anything that is non-intrusive (in other words, as long as there’s no recording any personal data). For instance the link I provided above is a great tool for developers (I don’t really care about their module for purchase intention, the cool part is analyzing hot spots to help level design).

The ongoing discussion on irc/twitter/this blog about how the theme ‘escape’ enabled almost every game idea to fit somehow made me pondering, if there is some link to this big amount of new participants in LD21. So my theory goes like that:

the theme was very open, so newcomers could submit almost every kind of game

this encouraged a lot more people to try and made something very simple and stuck some sort of escape to it

would the elected topic have been something like self-replication or recursion, the amount of submitted games would have been less

Especially the themes stated above probably would have needed a deeper insight to programming techniques and game design principles which could have put a lot of people off. Any opinion to this theory?

To fire the discussion, I can even give a counter-argument:

There were so many new people attracted before the final voting ended (by notch, etc), that they had a significant influence on theme voting.

All games that include this phrase will be awarded a golden Ludum Dare achievement trophy that will appear on their profile page. Good luck and have fun!

Happy summer vacation, everyone! Are you ready for June’s Ludum Dare miniLD game jam? This month’s mini will be held on the weekend of the 25th. I think you will love the theme. It is sure to get people talking… due to popular request I’m releasing the theme early so people on vacation can dive right in and get started early.

The theme is: ALL TALK – conversation trees and dialogue choices.

On Friday June 24 at 4pm PST (midnight GMT) a secret phrase will be announced. Your entry must contain this phrase in the dialogue!

This month’s MiniLD #27 is designed to be fun, low-stress, and relaxed. Perfect for vacationers. The rules this time are going to be very chill: you can use any game engine you like, premade art, and people are welcome to form teams. Instead of crunch-time cramming, you are allowed to start now and work up to midnight on Sunday June 26th. There will be no disqualifications whatsoever. The only rule is that there are no rules. Take your time – use whatever tools you like – just have fun!

Crimson Gem Saga

Ren'Py

June’s “all talk” theme is perfect for plot-heavy, deep philosophical discussions between the player and a cast of NPCs.

I’ll be creating my own HTML engine for this, using pre-rendered 3d avatars. Since we don’t have to care about tech or rendering performance, HTML5 is the perfect choice since it is great for low-power mobile devices. Heck, you could write your game using youtube, regular html4 or even hypercard.

Make a murder mystery or a political scandal. A dating simulator or a talk show. A news report or a bedtime story. A love story or a heart-wrenching breakup. Beat poetry or freestyle hip-hop. Whispers or screams. Secret school flirtations or code-words between spies. Hardcore RPG, Ren-py visual novel or pure text IF (interactive fiction), the choice is yours.

No matter what the genre – from AAA rpgs and shooters to puzzle games and everything in between, virtually every videogame ever made uses dialogue to progress the plot. Repetitive battles and grinding are sometimes seen as mere filler between the NPC dialogue and missions. Which is more exciting? Killing your thousandth giant rat or encountering the next major NPC who gives you a quest?

Fallout 3

Alpha Protocol

This low-stress, relaxed rules MiniLD is a fun way to get away from worrying about framerate, animation or incredible 3d graphics and instead focus on the plot. The characters. The story. The soul.

Perhaps you will invent an epic storyline and a cast of interesting characters that are so cool they make it into your next action title! For now, just remember: focus on dialogue and characterization. On personal conflict, emotions and tough decisions.

Valkyria Chronicles

Final Fantasy II

Will this be a fun breather between more intense programming projects? Will your game be easier to program than something more graphics-heavy? Will it be deeper than your last brainless shooter? More artistic? Less work? More original? Discuss.